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MIJ sheraton "by Gibson"


timeforheroes

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what can you guys teach me about the late 80's sheratons that have "epiphone by gibson"

 

has any one had experience with these guitars? what should i look out for? goods and bads?

 

i have the opportunity to buy one but it is slightly beat. It will also be sold with no electronics.

 

what is a reasonable asking price. thanks, ill try ad post pics that he took for me later.

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what can you guys teach me about the late 80's sheratons that have "epiphone by gibson"

 

has any one had experience with these guitars? what should i look out for? goods and bads?

 

i have the opportunity to buy one but it is slightly beat. It will also be sold with no electronics.

 

what is a reasonable asking price. thanks' date=' ill try ad post pics that he took for me later.[/quote']

 

can tell you that I'm pretty sure they were made in Korea' date=' not Japan...someone will soon either correct or corroborate

my opinion...

[/quote']

 

Dubs correct, Made in Korea by Samick 1986-1988. Very nice guitars. Watch the bridge, they're not standard size. If it's missing, you might have a hard time finding an exact replacement.

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what can you guys teach me about the late 80's sheratons that have "epiphone by gibson"

 

has any one had experience with these guitars? what should i look out for? goods and bads?

 

i have the opportunity to buy one but it is slightly beat. It will also be sold with no electronics.

 

what is a reasonable asking price. thanks' date=' ill try ad post pics that he took for me later.

 

 

 

[/quote']

 

Sheratons with the "Epiphone By Gibson" headstock logo were made in Korea (by Samick) between 1986 and 1988. Japanese-made Sheratons have an entirely different headstock logo similar to the cursive"E" logo used by Epiphone prior to the Gibson purchase of Epiphone in 1957. The Korean-made Sheratons from this era pretty much picked up where the Japanese (Matsumoku-made) models left off with perhaps a slight drop in materials quality otherwise they're pretty decent instruments but by no means worth a fortune. One from this era, without electronics in "slightly beat" condition isn't going to be worth more than say $250 since one in very good condition with its original electronics is only going to go for around $400-$450. I don't know of any specific quality or build issues in these models but the double logo doesn't seem to be as popular as the single "Epiphone" headstock logo so therefore not as easy to sell. Good luck.

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I'm gonna try to find my catalog.. but I distinctly recall some japanese epis being made..

 

Yes' date=' there were the Matsumoku MIJ Sheratons, Rivieras & Emperors, in the '80s, but only the Korean

Samick ones had [i']Epiphone by Gibson[/i] on the headstock. This is an "83 MIJ Sheraton:

 

sherry_mij.jpg

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I'm gonna try to find my catalog.. but I distinctly recall some japanese epis being made..

 

Ummm yeah...there were Japanese Epiphones made (by Matsumoku) starting in 1971 joined by a Japan-exclusive line made starting about 1975 which became world-wide distributed starting about 1979 and continuing until 1986 and after that there was another Japan-exclusive line made (by Terada) until about 1999 when it became the Elite line...so yeah' date=' there've been Japanese Epiphones...

 

There were Matsumoku-made Japanese Sheratons made from 1975 until 1986 or so and then there were Japanese market exclusive Terada-made Sheratons made from 1987 until the late 90's when they magically turned into the more-widely distributed Elite/Elitist Series Sheratons. Starting about 1997 until 2002 or so there was the John Lee Hooker Sheratons and the over-run production which followed which were in actuality Terada-made Japanese Sheratons so yeah, there were Japanese-made Sheratons..here's a Terada-made Japanese exclusive Sheraton

 

[img']http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk108/MrGregzy/tadssheraton.jpg[/img]

 

The guitar belongs to Tad Miura who once was a regular contributor here and the ABSOLUTE expert on Japanese/Asian Epiphones

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Ummm yeah...there were Japanese Epiphones made (by Matsumoku) starting in 1971 joined by a Japan-exclusive line made starting about 1975 which became world-wide distributed starting about 1979 and continuing until 1986 and after that there was another Japan-exclusive line made (by Terada) until about 1999 when it became the Elite line...so yeah' date=' there've been Japanese Epiphones...

 

There were Matsumoku-made Japanese Sheratons made from 1975 until 1986 or so and then there were Japanese market exclusive Terada-made Sheratons made from 1987 until the late 90's when they magically turned into the more-widely distributed Elite/Elitist Series Sheratons. Starting about 1997 until 2002 or so there was the John Lee Hooker Sheratons and the over-run production which followed which were in actuality Terada-made Japanese Sheratons so yeah, there were Japanese-made Sheratons..here's a Terada-made Japanese exclusive Sheraton

 

[img']http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk108/MrGregzy/tadssheraton.jpg[/img]

 

The guitar belongs to Tad Miura who once was a regular contributor here and the ABSOLUTE expert on Japanese/Asian Epiphones

 

Thanks Iconoclast, I was not aware of the extent of the Terada ones. What other Epiphones did Terada make for the Japanese market?

 

That is really one beautiful Sheraton!!!

 

What do the serial numbers show on these as far as identifying it as a Terada model or made in Japan?

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Thanks Iconoclast' date=' I was not aware of the extent of the Terada ones. What other Epiphones did Terada make for the Japanese market?

 

That is [b']really[/b] one beautiful Sheraton!!!

 

What do the serial numbers show on these as far as identifying it as a Terada model or made in Japan?

 

Starting in about 1987 and continuing until about 1999 Terada made (that I'm certain of) a couple of different versions of the Casino :

 

epiphone-jpn-casino-nt.jpg

 

casino65858.jpg

 

(I own one of these- it was a special run for a Japanese music store and the precursor for the Lennon reissue Casinos)

 

A limited edition white Casino:

 

casino35591.jpg

 

, a Sheraton :

 

Here's a different one from about 1987-note the orange oval label:

 

epiphone-japan-sheraton-sb-80s.jpg

 

 

and a smaller photo showing the headstock:

 

epiphone-japan-sheraton-sb-80s-2.jpg

 

a Rivoli bass

 

rivoli87004.jpg

 

as well as versions of the ES-335

 

epiphone-japan-es335.jpg

 

and some acoustic models such as a version of the Everly Brother's J-180, the Epiphone Excellente' and Texan and the Gibson J-45 but I'm not certain Terada made the acoustics.

 

A really odd ball guitar is this early (c.1974) Matsumoku-made Japanese-exclusive Riviera with the double parallelogram fret board markers. This is a set neck model not one of the cheesy bolt-on neck guitars that made it to our shores at this point in time :

 

epiphonejapan-riviera-1974-1.png

 

We've become somewhat familiar with the Matsumoku-made line of the Casinos, Rivieras Sheratons and Emporers but there were also special runs and limited distribution models like a Japanese Coronet that was very close to the Kalamazoo model but extremely rare outside of Japan.

 

Terada used the oval orange Epiphone label that's currently used on all of the arch tops starting in 1987 but their serial number format is a sequential five digit number that I haven't figured out yet...I have a Casino with the serial number of 65883 that the original owner said was purchased new in 1993 but other guitars with lower numbers have turned out to be more recent so to be honest I'm not certain how the numbering system goes. The only indication of country of origin again is the serial number format and on the bottom of the bridge it's stamped "Made In Japan (Gotoh) and the front of some of the machine heads it's stamped "Japan" (Gotoh). Japanese Epiphone production and range of models were quite extensive and the Matsumoku models that we are familiar with are only the tip of the iceberg. I really wish Tad Miura was still around. He was an extraordinary source of Asian Epiphone information. If I dig up any more photos or any more information I'll post ...

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  • 1 year later...

Hello Epi Sheraton Lovers. I'm new to the forum and really like the expertise here. I recently purchased an used Epi Sheraton II (my second Epi since 2001). I am the third owner. The previous owner got the guitar from a younger player who informed him he owned the guitar in the late 90's. While there is no S/N embedded on the guitar (and the Made in Korea (I am guessing Korea) has fallen off, I am trying to trace it's history. The odd thing is, this is the first time I've ever seen a post-Gibson headstock quite like this. Has anyone seen similar? Fake maybe? I've scoured the net for other images, checked the EpiWiki, etc.

 

CIMG0816.JPG

 

Thanks in advance.=P~

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